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An experienced housekeeper in New York is suing a prospective employer, charging she demanded that the housekeeper take and pass an HIV test before starting her job.

Agnes Cybulska, who has been in the relatively unregulated housekeeping industry for 19 years, is suing Dana Hammond, the heiress to the Annenberg family, according to The New York Times. Cybulska answered an ad she found on Craigslist posted by an employment agency that called for an "experienced executive Polish housekeeper." Duties included supervising the domestic staff, cleaning, running errands, and caring for Hammond's daughter.

When Cybulska visited Hammond at one of her homes in January, she said, Hammond told her the job would not pay the advertised $1,000 per week, but instead $150 daily, for nine hours, without benefits or overtime.

In a second interview, according to Cybulska, Hammond demanded that she take and pass an HIV test, something Hammond has required of everyone on her domestic staff. Hammond said she had recently been tested herself after using a toilet that seemed unsanitary; the statement struck Cybulska as odd. Cybulska then informed the employment agency that Hammond was demanding the test be administered, and soon after agency executives informed her that she was not right for the position.

Cybulska's suit, filed Tuesday in a state court in Manhattan, says the testing requirement violates New York City's Human Rights Law. It names both Hammond and the employment agency, Domestic Job Picks, as defendants. Their representatives were not available for comment to the Times.

Discriminating against someone with HIV is also illegal under the federal Americans With Disabilities Act.

I wonder what defines "passing"? Let's see, HIV is a bug, bugs bite... Did I pass?

Logged

Don't obsess over the wrong things. Life isn't about your numbers, it isn't about this forum, it isn't about someone's opinion. It's about getting out there and enjoying it. I am a person with HIV - not the other way around.

When Cybulska visited Hammond at one of her homes in January, she said, Hammond told her the job would not pay the advertised $1,000 per week, but instead $150 daily, for nine hours, without benefits or overtime.

The lawsuit, if unusual in its particulars, does offer yet one more view into the world of domestic workers and their employers. Advocates for domestic workers say excessive demands are far too common because nannies and housekeepers have long been excluded from most labor law protections.

Albany lawmakers hope to ease the workers’ quandary. This month the State Senate passed the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, which seeks to give workers protections enjoyed by most other employees. The State Assembly passed a similar bill last year, and lawmakers are working to reconcile the two bills before the end of the legislative session.

When Cybulska visited Hammond at one of her homes in January, she said, Hammond told her the job would not pay the advertised $1,000 per week, but instead $150 daily, for nine hours, without benefits or overtime.

Surely this is a breach of NY state industrial law.

MtD

Well, if she expects the maid to work 7 days a week it would be $1,050 a week . That comes out to $16.6/day which is well above minimum wage. The lack of overtime would probably be against NY labor laws, though. But not the lack of benefits.

Like I said - I think there is a difference between companies and individuals. A company should not be allowed to discriminate based on a number of factors, HIV status being one of them.

An individual hiring someone should be free to pick whoever they want for whatever reasons. Just like we don't have to explain to anybody what barber we use or which florist we frequent.

So, say a sole proprietorship employing 10 people can require an HIV test? Or do you just mean one person hiring one other person, but not two people? The heiress was doing this HIV test for all staff.

So, say a sole proprietorship employing 10 people can require an HIV test? Or do you just mean one person hiring one other person, but not two people? The heiress was doing this HIV test for all staff.

A sole proprietorship sound like a company to me - whose purpose is to provide services or make goods for the market at large. Hence no HIV tests.

One person (or household) hiring domestic staff - whether it's one cleaner or ten - is a different case. She is the sole consumer and should have the right to pick whoever she sees fit.

Yup. He likes to contradict everybody just for shits and giggles. He must be a riot in real life.

This woman got tested because she "used a toliet that seemed unsanitary"? What did she use it for, to have unprotected sex? She must have been hanging out with la Philicia at Sound Factory.

I can't believe that someone who should have some sort of education thinks this way. This is not 1984.

Logged

"I have tried hard--but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person. I can hardly be said to have an independent existence. I was just a screw or a cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else."

This aspect does not register for some reason here where I am. I've discussed the possibilities with many people in the health care profession, including my doctor, about becoming a RN with my pos status, not one person has told me it is possible yet. Mind you, it hasn't deterred me in the least, but it is kind of disappointing.

This aspect does not register for some reason here where I am. I've discussed the possibilities with many people in the health care profession, including my doctor, about becoming a RN with my pos status, not one person has told me it is possible yet. Mind you, it hasn't deterred me in the least, but it is kind of disappointing.

I feel for you Skeets. Restrictions on HIV positive clinicians have no basis in sound practice or in science.

This will be of little comfort for you, but in Australia there is no compulsory HIV testing for any health care worker and no HIV positive HCW is required to disclose their HIV status to anyone - patient or employer.

But don't let this stuff deter you. Stupid restrictions like this will not change unless people in your position take the cudgels up demand that change.

This aspect does not register for some reason here where I am. I've discussed the possibilities with many people in the health care profession, including my doctor, about becoming a RN with my pos status, not one person has told me it is possible yet. Mind you, it hasn't deterred me in the least, but it is kind of disappointing.

I have no idea what the laws are about healthcare workers. Do some states require them to take an HIV test? I know they can require you to get vaccinations. That came to a head during the H1N1 ordeal.

I have never heard of this person, who is supposed to be an Annenberg "heiress" or as one story put it, "the" heiress (as if there were only one). The Annenberg's have never been known to be stupid nor uninformed. This person must be a real black hole, insulated by money to a point of worthlessness to the human race. What a pity for a family that did so much good with their money for a long time...

Logged

“From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need” 1875 K Marx

I have never heard of this person, who is supposed to be an Annenberg "heiress" or as one story put it, "the" heiress (as if there were only one). The Annenberg's have never been known to be stupid nor uninformed. This person must be a real black hole, insulated by money to a point of worthlessness to the human race. What a pity for a family that did so much good with their money for a long time...

One person (or household) hiring domestic staff - whether it's one cleaner or ten - is a different case.

Persons from rich families are not individuals, they are companies, as I am sure their tax lawyers will tell you. Plus, being the top dogs of the free world, a virtue surely enjoyed by natural and just advantage, ie inherited wealth, and believing in all that Jackie Kennedy human rights stuff as they do at them cocktail parties and philanthropic dinners, they should be well setting an example (<< I left out a word to be polite)

These years in Switzerland are changing the way I communicate. Public vulgarity is a crime here. Call a cunty woman a cunt on the street and she can have you arrested!

Cunt generally being one of those taboo words that I think only woman can use in certain situations. Like Fag, kike, dago, wetback, and nigger. I mean I could say cunt in a gay bar to another fag, but its pretty strong for a man to say it in a public forum like this, no?

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“From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need” 1875 K Marx

Hey I just looked up cunt and learned its more for a man, when used in public in Britain, and in the Australian New Zealand orbit, can even be positive??? True? Learn something new everyday!

# (Australian, New Zealand, British, positive comment, colloquial, countable) When used with certain adjectives such as good or funny, cunt can be used to describe a person in a positive manner. This is mostly done between male friends.

Yes, I do remember Dave, he was one funny cunt. Tom's a good cunt, he fixed my car and didn't even charge me for it!

Yup. He likes to contradict everybody just for shits and giggles. He must be a riot in real life.

This woman got tested because she "used a toliet that seemed unsanitary"? What did she use it for, to have unprotected sex? She must have been hanging out with la Philicia at Sound Factory.

I can't believe that someone who should have some sort of education thinks this way. This is not 1984.

I do, if I think the consensus is getting too comfortable with the prevailing view. I think someone should step in and say - hold on, this may not necessarily the right view just because we all think so.

I partied at the Sound Factory in the 90s too actually, but probably different crowd